Travel broadens the mind and uncovers business opportunities - as the business
exchanges from HSBC demonstrated

HSBC’s initiatives for mid-sized companies have been a really big deal for competition winners in previous years.

Finalists in Business Thinking, predecessor to Global Connections, say the biggest beneﬁts came from the HSBC Thought Exchange visits they attended on four continents, hearing from local business experts, touring factories and learning from one another in various round-table forums.

“Being with people from different industries gives a new prospective on issues and opportunities,” says Keith Hanson, chairman and chief executive of Middlesbrough-based Fine Industries, which operates in agrochemicals, environmental services, contract research, facilities management and software solutions. He visited Hong Kong.

In São Paulo, Charles Morgan, executive director of Morgan Motor Company, was interested to hear how Felipe Cavalieri, chief executive of BMC, a distributor of heavy construction vehicles, had helped South Korea’s Hyundai become Brazil’s biggest seller of excavators. So interested, in fact, that Mr Morgan set up talks with the Brazilian about becoming Morgan’s ﬁrst distributor in Latin America.

Meanwhile, Earlex, a power decorating ﬁrm in Guildford, is using its Business Thinking funding to spearhead a drive into South America.

“We had a lot of enquiries from South America at the show in China,” says chairman Julian Baseley.

“We’ve already taken orders from Ecuador and Chile and have great interest from Brazil and Argentina, so what we want to do now is get someone on the ground in South America.”

John Walsh, managing director of Abraham Moon and Sons, which produces wool at its site in Guiseley, Leeds, says the funding made available to winners is being used to accelerate the company’s growth.

“We’re going to invest at an even greater rate now in capital equipment and new buildings,” he says. “Most of the funding will be used as working capital to keep expanding the business, but we are also going into retail and e-tail, selling direct to the consumer through our website and opening our ﬁrst retail shop, near Settle.”

In New York, delegates learnt about the dangers of getting tangled up in the US state taxes system. The business owners also lost no opportunity to pitch their products.

Brian Hay, chief executive of Manchester-based logistics ﬁrm Cardinal Maritime, turned a conversation he overheard at Junior’s restaurant into an opportunity to ship a trial consignment of its famous cheesecake to the UK.

Noel Patterson, sales director of Liverpool-based RS Clare & Co, manufacturer in specialist lubricants, grasped a chance for new business while on a Business Thinking trip when visiting the New York ofﬁces of Arup, the engineering consultancy.

Arup is involved in many infrastructure projects, making it a natural customer for an anti-skid surface treatment that Mr Patterson’s company manufactures for use on bridge decks.

Meanwhile, Nick Hurst, co-founder of Devon hand-fried crisps ﬁrm Burts Chips, says: “By visiting Dubai, I have realised how little I knew about the sales opportunities and the business make-up of the region.”

Mike Ayres, chief executive of Advance Tapes, a manufacturer of speciality self-adhesive tapes based in Leicester, says the Business Thinking funding is helping a push elsewhere – in India.

“We’re principally a UK and European business and we export 80pc of our turnover,” he says.

“The next stage for us to continue business growth is that we’ve got to get into some of these emerging markets and we have chosen India.”

On the Paris Exchange, it was tempting for the British delegates to think that France, with its closeness to Britain and EU membership, would be one of the easiest foreign markets to understand.

However, the Exchange reinforced how essential it is for companies to have a deep understanding of French business culture before trying to seal any deals.

“It’s the importance of the development of strong mutual understanding and relationships before any concrete deal-making is even entertained in France,” says Gavin McMurray, sales and marketing director of East Kilbride-based sign-maker Merson Signs.

“People stop and take time for lunch – and appreciate it. What results is greater loyalty to brands, as long as those brands are up to the job and represent good value for money.”